A French Normandy Near the Metra in Forest Glen: 4901 W. Berwyn
There’s something about turrets on a property and this French Normandy style home at 4901 W. Berwyn in Forest Glen has one that leads up to the bedrooms.
Built in 1949, the house has a unique (at least for the city) attached 2-car garage.
It also is only a couple of blocks from the Forest Glen Metra Station which makes it an easy commute to downtown.
All three bedrooms are on the second floor.
The kitchen has white cabinets and black appliances. The full bath has what looks like the original 1949 tiles.
There is a stone wood burning fireplace in the living room, plaster coved ceilings and leaded windows.
It also has central air.
Irene Yungerman at Baird & Warner has the listing. See the pictures here.
4901 W. Berwyn: 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, 2 car garage, 1500 square feet
- I couldn’t find an original price- looks like it last sold before 1988
- Originally listed in April 2010 for $499,000
- Reduced almost immediately to $479,900
- Currently listed at $479,900
- Taxes of $5091
- Central Air
- Bedroom #1: 14×12
- Bedroom #2: 13×10
- Bedroom #3: 14×9
Normandy? House style is a minor deviation on the standard Chicago “georgian” – 3 bedrm, 1.1 bath, smallish rooms, cube house. Efficient house footprint for an undersized lot. When compared to LV/LS/LP, this house seems reasonably priced. But wait, it’s not in LV/LS/LP, and is a small house on a small lot in a non distinct neighborhood. It’s priced as high for the its circumstances.
I like that retro tower bathroom; thank goodness nobody Home Depot it yet with those brown-grey pseudo slate tiles and a bowl sink.
Typos noted.
Forest Glen is a wonderful quiet area with close access to metra, Cta Jeff park station and both 90 and 94. Great people all around and a unknown Forest preserve park that is beautiful. Beubian is a good school also dont know if this is in it.
All said i have noticed the Forest glens higher pricing hasnt come back to reality. Why? I have no clue its a awesome home but almost 500k for a one bathroom full bathroom place is a hard to want. and even though there is a metra stop for everything you will be car dependent.
BTW, there is a really good beef place on elston the popped up i cant remember the name only been there twice. but is GOOD, and its with heavy garlic too!
“Normandy? House style is a minor deviation on the standard Chicago “georgian””
I’m just going off of what the listing calls the house for the house style.
I like the cool little pocket neighborhoods near the forest preserves, cemeteries, and the Chicago River.
It’s an interesting place, but only one full bathroom kills it in my book. Interesting area though, but realtor should try to sell the school district more if possible. I think the price will drop under 450 by June.
Did anyone see the article on Crain’s yesterday noting that the first quarter of 2010 was the lowest sales rate for existing homes since 1994 for the Chicago area? And this would have been worse if it hadn’t been for the credit. In addition, much of the sales were distressed. I’ve love to see a graph for Cook County that shows non-distressed sales by quarter from 2000 to present. Overall total sales volume must be around 15% of the peak, and is probably driving a ton of realtors out of business.
Cute place, overpriced for the sqfootage and smaller lot though.
Dave M – I’d also be interested in seeing if the burbs are moving as slowly as well. My general groups of friends all seem to be fairly well stationary after a flurry of moves in the past two years. Only know of two couples actively talking about moves (both with
doh the dreaded less than sign. rest of post:
under 2 year old kids. One couple looking to move west, probably suburbs due to a work transfer, and the other from loop to LP or LV.
Architect, how is a 5,625 square foot lot “small”?
According to the listing, this is in Beaubien, which is one of the better CPS elementary schools. It looks nicely maintained, it has central air and three bedrooms (although the third is tiny). I love the landscaping and the patio. And you can commute downtown by Metra. All pluses in my book, although I think the exterior is fug.
It strikes me as overpriced, especially given the 1 bathroom, but I don’t know this neighborhood, so who knows.
“:Did anyone see the article on Crain’s yesterday noting that the first quarter of 2010 was the lowest sales rate for existing homes since 1994 for the Chicago area?”
I saw the article about the 16 year low for NEW single-family home sales, but didn’t see the one about existing home sales. Do you have a link?
My bad. Totally wrote that one wrong – I meant new construction, but for some reason was thinking existing. Either way, I’d like to see the graph I noted above.
i also dig the peach bathroom, but they need to steam off that wallpaper border/paint over the stenciling in the kitchen and put about 1/3 of their furniture in storage. The photos look better than most, but I’m feeling claustrophobic from two zip codes away.
“It strikes me as overpriced, especially given the 1 bathroom, but I don’t know this neighborhood, so who knows”
Delurking,
All the homes over here are strangely overpriced (not huge over priced, but over priced).
if a person goes 1-2 miles NW of here with their money to edgebrook they can get a better school and many shops in walking distance.
Same ‘hood, right around the corner, only $399,000 and under contract in less than 5 days:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/5225-N-Laporte-Ave-60630/home/22847584
anon (tfo): I’ve been saying this for a year. We’re at mid-90’s transaction levels. The last time we were in a “balanced” market was the mid-90’s. A “balanced” market is when the inventory is around 6-months.
I watch the numbers obsessively (and blog about it inconsistently at Chicago Housing Bubble) and can tell you that I think that if the market continues to move in the downward direction, that the opportunities will be insane. The problem is that sellers still have delusions about their homes’ values. But the 20% of sellers (and yeah – that’s a real statistic) who are priced at market value will sell very easily. And that’s where the real values are.
Bottom line – if we’re at 1994 transaction levels, and summer 2002 prices, the prices should continue to drop to about 2001 levels. But at that point, the market will HAVE to rebound. There are already stats coming out showing the market bounce that’s coming in 2011 and 2012. Some call it a “housing shortage”. I call it simple economics.
Phil:
The 20% of homes that are priced at market sell very quickly, usually within days (see the above home);
The problem is that there are very few homes with can be priced reasonably because they have high mortgage balances or 2nd mortgages. What buyer in 2002 would have thought that their home would sell for the same price in 2010?
The saving grace is the shadow inventory out there. Millions and millions of homes. Those will eventually slam the market and that’s going to drag the market down even further.
It’s just going to take a while, a long while
Definately has some potential to be a nice place but I think because of the horrible staging/minor cosmetic condition it is in most people will walk right out.
Staging….it DOES make a HUGE difference especially in a home that requires some updating. One could take these outdated features and make them into an almost asset, but the furnishings (LOL at that border…do ppl still do that?) and the way the Realtor allowed it to be photographed will allow further price chops.
There are already stats coming out showing the market bounce that’s coming in 2011 and 2012. Some call it a “housing shortage”. I call it simple economics.
If there’s a bounce in that timeframe, it’s a dead cat bounce.
The “simple economics” of the matter — real estate prices are generally out of whack with incomes. Couple that with the shadow inventory that HD notes. Absent significant wage inflation (e.g., greater than any offsetting general inflation) a near-term bounce will be temporary.
And how do you reconcile the more stringent lending standards? What would happen if FHA restricted their lending much more? That’s another 10% drop overnight. Interesting times to say the least.
Sabrina, I had seen agent’s “normandy” reference, and knew you hadn’t chosen that description. Kudos to your blog efforts.
Sold on 10/26/2010
$410,000
Hefty price reduction off the original list .
Not surprised at all by the price. At the end of the day, it sold for about 18% off its original list price. Not a horrible monthly payment at this price, but who knows what the next 10 years may hold for this buyer.
Great location. Walking distance to the metra; catch the 5:58 and be home in time for dinner at 6:25 or catch the 6:55 and home by 7:25pm (a little more realistic). In between two major highways each with easy access; with forest preserve and parks and a golf course a short walk or bike ride away. Elementary school ranked #34 in the CPS system and taxes that seem reasonable.
The Laporte comp around the corner listed at $399k, went under contract in days, and sold for $395,000 barely a month later.
In fact I think I may have found a new area to keep my eye on..
“In fact I think I may have found a new area to keep my eye on..”
Since I know you’re a big blue line fan, as am I, I’ll give you some of my cons for this and Edgebrook etc. location:
–If you’re close to blue line at work, then most likely you’re not that close to union station. Add in being tied to a train schedule and it’s a significantly more burdensome commute. (Pro is that maybe you can get a little work done more easily on metra.)
–Limited walkability. I’m not familiar with this immediate neighborhood as much as the next metra stop north, but I don’t think there’s that much interesting stuff within walking distance.
–No high school. I know this is a problem with Chicago generally, but I bring it up because for me once I’m thinking about being on a metra line and not having a lot of walkable stuff (and in some burbs you have considerably more than this location), then I’m not sure what is upside relative to burbs if you don’t need a city address. And there are MANY houses in burbs within walking distance of metra, with similar metra commute, more walkability than this place, plus you get a HS to go to.
“No high school. I know this is a problem with Chicago generally, but I bring it up because for me once I’m thinking about being on a metra line and not having a lot of walkable stuff (and in some burbs you have considerably more than this location), then I’m not sure what is upside relative to burbs if you don’t need a city address. And there are MANY houses in burbs within walking distance of metra, with similar metra commute, more walkability than this place, plus you get a HS to go to.”
I’m with you DZ. When I am up in this neighborhood (or Edison Park or Oriole Park) there is nothing that distinguishes it from the inner suburbs (same types of homes, Metra nearby, get in your car to drive to most shopping). But there are better high schools in the inner suburbs (sometimes just 2 or 3 miles away.)
So why not just live where you don’t have to worry about the high school?
You both have a point.
Hey, man, it goes without saying, without the low money down, we’d all be living in DETROIT
Executed Recorded Document Type Amount
10/27/2010 11/04/2010 MORTGAGE $404,552.0